An Inspector Calls

Question 1

Mr Birling

Answer 1

Act 1 (std) —“Heavy-looking, rather portentous man”
Act 1 — “For lower costs and higher prices”
Act 1 — “Hard-headed practical man of business”
Act 1 — “Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
Act 2 — “What’s the matter with that child”
Act 2 — “I’ve told you before I don’t like your tone”
Act 3 — “Good lad. You asked about him, eh?”
Act 3 — “Now look at the pair of them […] they can’t even take a joke.”

Question 2

Mrs Birling

Answer 2

Act 1 (std) —“A rather cold woman”
Act 1 — “Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things”
Act 1 — “Men with important work to do spend nearly all their time and energy on their business.
Act 2 — “I don’t suppose we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class-”
Act 2 — “She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd for in a girl in that position”
Act 3 — “I’m ashamed of you as well - yes both of you.”
Act 3 — “Oh Eric, how could you?”

Question 3

Sheila

Answer 3

Act 1 (std) — “Pretty girl in her early twenties”
Act 1 — “But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people.”
Act 1 — “If she’d been some miserable plain little creature, I don’t suppose I’d have done it”
Act 2 — “I’m desperately sorry - but I can’t believe - I won’t believe - it’s simply my fault”
Act 2 — “You don’t believe me. And this is the wrong time not to believe in me.”
Act 3 — “I behaved badly too, I know I did, I’m ashamed of it.”
Act 3 — “You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way.”

Question 4

Gerald

Answer 4

Act 1 (std) —“Well-bred young man-about-town”
Act 1 —“(Showing annoyance) Any particular reason why I can’t see.”
Act 1 — “So - for God’s sake - don’t say anything to the inspector”
Act 2 — “I didn’t install her there so that I could make lover to her […] It wasn’t disgusting”
Act 2 —“Old Joe Meggarty, half-drunk and goggle-eyed, had wedged her into a corner with that obscene fat carcass of his”
Act 3 — “We’ve no proof it was the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl”
Act 3 — “What do you make of this business now?”

Question 5

Eric

Answer 5

Act 1 (std) — “Not quite at ease” “Half shy, half assertive”
Act 1 — “Sheila: You’re squiffy”
Act 1 — “He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck”
Act 2 — “(unhappily) My god - I’m not likely to forget”
Act 3 — “My child - your own grandchild - you killed them both - damn you, damn you”
Act 3 — “I was in a state when a chap easily turns nasty”
Act 3 — “You’re beginning to pretend now that nothing’s really happened at all. And I can’t see it like that. This girl’s still dead, isn’t she?”

Question 6

Inspector Goole

Answer 6

Act 1 (std) — “Need not be a big man”
Act 1 — “A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody’s made of it”
Act 1 — “What happened afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.
Act 2 — “Public men[…]have responsibilities as well as privileges”
Act 2 — “ She was here alone, desperate […] and you slammed the door in her face”
Act 3 — “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”
Act 3 — “They will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.”

Question 7

Eva Smith

Answer 7

Act 1 — “Young woman died after several hours of agony”
Act 1 — “Lively, good-looking girl - country bred”
Act 2 — “You were the wonderful fairy prince. You must have adored it Gerald”
Act 2 — “Girls of that class-“
Act 3 — “as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person”
Act 3 — “There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths”